BOOK II

PROEM

[Philosophy offers serenity in withdrawal from care and pain.]

'Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the winds
1356Roll up its waste of waters, from the land
1357To watch another's laboring anguish far,
1358Not that we joyously delight that man
1359Should thus be smitten, but because 'tis sweet
1360To mark what evils we ourselves be spared;
1361'Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife
1362Of armies embattled yonder o'er the plains,
1363Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but naught
1364There is more goodly than to hold the high
1365Serene plateaus, well fortressed by the wise,
1366Whence thou may'st look below on other men
1367And see them ev'rywhere wand'ring, all dispersed
1368In their lone seeking for the road of life;
1369Rivals in genius, or emulous in rank,
1370Pressing through days and nights with hugest toil
1371For summits of power and mastery of the world.
1372O wretched minds of men! O blinded hearts!
1373In how great perils, in what darks of life
1374Are spent the human years, however brief!-
1375O not to see that nature for herself
1376Barks after nothing, save that pain keep off,
1377Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy
1378Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear!

[Luxurious self-indulgence is the opposite of true pleasure.]

Therefore we see that our corporeal life
1380Needs little, altogether, and only such
1381As takes the pain away, and can besides
1382Strew underneath some number of delights.
1383More grateful 'tis at times (for nature craves
1384No artifice nor luxury), if forsooth
1385There be no golden images of boys
1386Along the halls, with right hands holding out
1387The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,
1388And if the house doth glitter not with gold
1389Nor gleam with silver, and to the lyre resound
1390No fretted and gilded ceilings overhead,
1391Yet still to lounge with friends in the soft grass
1392Beside a river of water, underneath
1393A big tree's boughs, and merrily to refresh
1394Our frames, with no vast outlay- most of all
1395If the weather is laughing and the times of the year
1396Besprinkle the green of the grass around with flowers.
1397Nor yet the quicker will hot fevers go,
1398If on a pictured tapestry thou toss,
1399Or purple robe, than if 'tis thine to lie
1400Upon the poor man's bedding.

[Luxury offers nothing to the mind.]

Wherefore, since
1401Treasure, nor rank, nor glory of a reign
1402Avail us naught for this our body, thus
1403Reckon them likewise nothing for the mind:
1404Save then perchance, when thou beholdest forth
1405Thy legions swarming round the Field of Mars,
1406Rousing a mimic warfare- either side
1407Strengthened with large auxiliaries and horse,
1408Alike equipped with arms, alike inspired;
1409Or save when also thou beholdest forth
1410Thy fleets to swarm, deploying down the sea:
1411For then, by such bright circumstance abashed,
1412Religion pales and flees thy mind; O then
1413The fears of death leave heart so free of care.
1414But if we note how all this pomp at last
1415Is but a drollery and a mocking sport,
1416And of a truth man's dread, with cares at heels,
1417Dreads not these sounds of arms, these savage swords
1418But among kings and lords of all the world
1419Mingles undaunted, nor is overawed
1420By gleam of gold nor by the splendor bright
1421Of purple robe, canst thou then doubt that this
1422Is aught, but power of thinking?- when, besides
1423The whole of life but labors in the dark.
1424For just as children tremble and fear all
1425In the viewless dark, so even we at times
1426Dread in the light so many things that be
1427No whit more fearsome than what children feign,
1428Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.
1429This terror then, this darkness of the mind,
1430Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
1431Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
1432But only nature's aspect and her law. . . .

[Some corollaries of atomic physics.]

Now to true reason give thy mind for us.
2667Since here strange truth is putting forth its might
2668To hit thee in thine ears, a new aspect
2669Of things to show its front. Yet naught there is
2670So easy that it standeth not at first
2671More hard to credit than it after is;
2672And naught soe'er that's great to such degree,
2673Nor wonderful so far, but all mankind
2674Little by little abandon their surprise.
2675Look upward yonder at the bright clear sky
2676And what it holds- the stars that wander o'er,
2677The moon, the radiance of the splendour-sun:
2678Yet all, if now they first for mortals were,
2679If unforeseen now first asudden shown,
2680What might there be more wonderful to tell,
2681What that the nations would before have dared
2682Less to believe might be?- I fancy, naught-
2683So strange had been the marvel of that sight.
2684The which o'erwearied to behold, to-day
2685None deigns look upward to those lucent realms.
2686Then, spew not reason from thy mind away,
2687Beside thyself because the matter's new,
2688But rather with keen judgment nicely weigh;
2689And if to thee it then appeareth true,
2690Render thy hands, or, if 'tis false at last,
2691Gird thee to combat. For my mind-of-man
2692Now seeks the nature of the vast Beyond
2693There on the other side, that boundless sum
2694Which lies without the ramparts of the world,
2695Toward which the spirit longs to peer afar,
2696Toward which indeed the swift elan of thought
2697Flies unencumbered forth.

[Other worlds exist besides earth.]

Firstly, we find,
2699Off to all regions round, on either side,
2700Above, beneath, throughout the universe
2701End is there none- as I have taught, as too
2702The very thing of itself declares aloud,
2703And as from nature of the unbottomed deep
2704Shines clearly forth.

[This must be true, because space is infinite.]

Nor can we once suppose
2705In any way 'tis likely, (seeing that space
2706To all sides stretches infinite and free,
2707And seeds, innumerable in number, in sum
2708Bottomless, there in many a manner fly,
2709Bestirred in everlasting motion there),
2710That only this one earth and sky of ours
2711Hath been create and that those bodies of stuff,
2712So many, perform no work outside the same;

[Moreover, earth is the product of atoms combining randomly.]

Seeing, moreover, this world too hath been
2714By nature fashioned, even as seeds of things
2715By innate motion chanced to clash and cling-
2716After they'd been in many a manner driven
2717Together at random, without design, in vain-
2718And as at last those seeds together dwelt,
2719Which, when together of a sudden thrown,
2720Should alway furnish the commencements fit
2721Of mighty things- the earth, the sea, the sky,
2722And race of living creatures. Thus, I say,
2723Again, again, 'tmust be confessed there are
2724Such congregations of matter otherwhere,
2725Like this our world which vasty ether holds
2726In huge embrace.

[Because the conditions that produced earth are consistent throughout the universe, other inhabited worlds must exist.]

Besides, when matter abundant
2728Is ready there, when space on hand, nor object
2729Nor any cause retards, no marvel 'tis
2730That things are carried on and made complete,
2731Perforce. And now, if store of seeds there is
2732So great that not whole life-times of the living
2733Can count the tale...
2734And if their force and nature abide the same,
2735Able to throw the seeds of things together
2736Into their places, even as here are thrown
2737The seeds together in this world of ours,
2738'Tmust be confessed in other realms there are
2739Still other worlds, still other breeds of men,
2740And other generations of the wild.

[Nothing in the universe is unique.

]

Hence too it happens in the sum there is
2742No one thing single of its kind in birth,
2743And single and sole in growth, but rather it is
2744One member of some generated race,
2745Among full many others of like kind.
2746First, cast thy mind abroad upon the living:
2747Thou'lt find the race of mountain-ranging wild
2748Even thus to be, and thus the scions of men
2749To be begot, and lastly the mute flocks
2750Of scaled fish, and winged frames of birds.
2751Wherefore confess we must on grounds the same
2752That earth, sun, moon, and ocean, and all else,
2753Exist not sole and single- rather in number
2754Exceeding number. Since that deeply set
2755Old boundary stone of life remains for them
2756No less, and theirs a body of mortal birth
2757No less, than every kind which here on earth
2758Is so abundant in its members found.

[Nature is self-sustaining, not the work of the gods.

]

Which well perceived if thou hold in mind,
2760Then Nature, delivered from every haughty lord,
2761And forthwith free, is seen to do all things
2762Herself and through herself of own accord,
2763Rid of all gods. For- by their holy hearts
2764Which pass in long tranquillity of peace
2765Untroubled ages and a serene life!-
2766Who hath the power (I ask), who hath the power
2767To rule the sum of the immeasurable,
2768To hold with steady hand the giant reins
2769Of the unfathomed deep? Who hath the power
2770At once to roll a multitude of skies,
2771At once to heat with fires ethereal all
2772The fruitful lands of multitudes of worlds,
2773To be at all times in all places near,
2774To stablish darkness by his clouds, to shake
2775The serene spaces of the sky with sound,
2776And hurl his lightnings,- ha, and whelm how oft
2777In ruins his own temples, and to rave,
2778Retiring to the wildernesses, there
2779At practice with that thunderbolt of his,
2780Which yet how often shoots the guilty by,
2781And slays the honorable blameless ones!

[The earth was produced by atoms from elsewhere in the cosmos.]

Ere since the birth-time of the world, ere since
2783The risen first-born day of sea, earth, sun,
2784Have many germs been added from outside,
2785Have many seeds been added round about,
2786Which the great All, the while it flung them on,
2787Brought hither, that from them the sea and lands
2788Could grow more big, and that the house of heaven
2789Might get more room and raise its lofty roofs
2790Far over earth, and air arise around.
2791For bodies all, from out all regions, are
2792Divided by blows, each to its proper thing,
2793And all retire to their own proper kinds:
2794The moist to moist retires; earth gets increase
2795From earthy body; and fires, as on a forge,
2796Beat out new fire; and ether forges ether;
2797Till nature, author and ender of the world,
2798Hath led all things to extreme bound of growth:
2799As haps when that which hath been poured inside
2800The vital veins of life is now no more
2801Than that which ebbs within them and runs off.
2802This is the point where life for each thing ends;
2803This is the point where nature with her powers
2804Curbs all increase. For whatsoe'er thou seest
2805Grow big with glad increase, and step by step
2806Climb upward to ripe age, these to themselves
2807Take in more bodies than they send from selves,
2808Whilst still the food is easily infused
2809Through all the veins, and whilst the things are not
2810So far expanded that they cast away
2811Such numerous atoms as to cause a waste
2812Greater than nutriment whereby they wax.
2813For 'tmust be granted, truly, that from things
2814Many a body ebbeth and runs off;
2815But yet still more must come, until the things
2816Have touched development's top pinnacle;
2817Then old age breaks their powers and ripe strength
2818And falls away into a worser part.
2819For ever the ampler and more wide a thing,
2820As soon as ever its augmentation ends,
2821It scatters abroad forthwith to all sides round
2822More bodies, sending them from out itself.
2823Nor easily now is food disseminate
2824Through all its veins; nor is that food enough
2825To equal with a new supply on hand
2826Those plenteous exhalations it gives off.
2827Thus, fairly, all things perish, when with ebbing
2828They're made less dense and when from blows without
2829They are laid low; since food at last will fail
2830Extremest eld, and bodies from outside
2831Cease not with thumping to undo a thing
2832And overmaster by infesting blows.

[Like everything else, our earth is also in decay.

]

Thus, too, the ramparts of the mighty world
2834On all sides round shall taken be by storm,
2835And tumble to wrack and shivered fragments down.
2836For food it is must keep things whole, renewing;
2837'Tis food must prop and give support to all,-
2838But to no purpose, since nor veins suffice
2839To hold enough, nor nature ministers
2840As much as needful. And even now 'tis thus:
2841Its age is broken and the earth, outworn
2842With many parturitions, scarce creates
2843The little lives- she who created erst
2844All generations and gave forth at birth
2845Enormous bodies of wild beasts of old.
2846For never, I fancy, did a golden cord
2847From off the firmament above let down
2848The mortal generations to the fields;
2849Nor sea, nor breakers pounding on the rocks
2850Created them; but earth it was who bore-
2851The same to-day who feeds them from herself.
2852Besides, herself of own accord, she first
2853The shining grains and vineyards of all joy
2854Created for mortality; herself
2855Gave the sweet fruitage and the pastures glad,
2856Which now to-day yet scarcely wax in size,
2857Even when aided by our toiling arms.
2858We break the ox, and wear away the strength
2859Of sturdy farm-hands; iron tools to-day
2860Barely avail for tilling of the fields,
2861So niggardly they grudge our harvestings,
2862So much increase our labor. Now to-day
2863The aged ploughman, shaking of his head,
2864Sighs o'er and o'er that labors of his hands
2865Have fallen out in vain, and, as he thinks
2866How present times are not as times of old,
2867Often he praises the fortunes of his sire,
2868And crackles, prating, how the ancient race,
2869Fulfilled with piety, supported life
2870With simple comfort in a narrow plot,
2871Since, man for man, the measure of each field
2872Was smaller far i' the old days. And, again,
2873The gloomy planter of the withered vine
2874Rails at the season's change and wearies heaven,
2875Nor grasps that all of things by sure degrees
2876Are wasting away and going to the tomb,
2877Outworn by venerable length of life.